Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs MiniMax M1 80K vs Mistral Small 3.2 24B
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite comes out ahead, 83 to 65 and 47 on our weighted score, though Mistral Small 3.2 24B is 14% cheaper per token.
- Our pick
GoogleGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite
83/100- ECI—
- Price$0.10 / $0.40
- Context1.05M
MiniMaxMiniMax M1 80K
47/100- ECI—
- Price$0.55 / $2.20
- Context1M
Mistral AIMistral Small 3.2 24B
65/100- ECI—
- Price$0.10 / $0.305
- Context256K
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is our pick
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 83/100 against Mistral Small 3.2 24B (65) and MiniMax M1 80K (47). It leads on inputs & features. Mistral Small 3.2 24B wins on price. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
- CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
- Lowest priceMistral Small 3.2 24BMistral Small 3.2 24B $0.151 · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite $0.175 · MiniMax M1 80K $0.963 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 1,048,576 · MiniMax M1 80K 1,000,000 · Mistral Small 3.2 24B 256,000 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · MiniMax M1 80K: Text · Mistral Small 3.2 24B: Text, Images
- Self-hostingMiniMax M1 80K and Mistral Small 3.2 24BPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | MiniMax M1 80K | Mistral Small 3.2 24B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 82 | 48 | 85 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 100 | 35 | 50 |
| Context window | 20% | 61 | 60 | 36 |
| Overall | 100% | 83/100 | 47/100 | 65/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Gemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGoogle | MiniMax M1 80KMiniMax | Mistral Small 3.2 24BMistral AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.10 (best) | $0.55 | $0.10 (best) |
| Output | $0.40 | $2.20 | $0.305 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.01 | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.175 | $0.963 | $0.151 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Google API | Median of 5 providers | Median of 8 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 1,000,000 tokens | 256,000 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens | 80,000 tokens (best) | 16,384 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | No | Yes |
| PDFs | Yes | No | No |
| Audio | Yes | No | No |
| Video | Yes | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | OpenApache-2.0 | Open |
| API model ID | gemini-2.5-flash-lite | — | — |
| API providers | 24 (best) | 5 | 8 |
| Released | Jun 17, 2025 | Jun 17, 2025 | Jun 20, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Jan 2025 | — | Oct 31, 2023 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite$1.80
- MiniMax M1 80K$9.90
- Mistral Small 3.2 24B$1.61
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite, MiniMax M1 80K or Mistral Small 3.2 24B?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 83/100 against Mistral Small 3.2 24B (65) and MiniMax M1 80K (47). It leads on inputs & features. Mistral Small 3.2 24B wins on price. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite, MiniMax M1 80K or Mistral Small 3.2 24B?
Mistral Small 3.2 24B is cheaper at $0.10 input / $0.305 output per million tokens (median across 8 API providers). Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite costs $0.10 input / $0.40 output per million tokens (official Google API price); MiniMax M1 80K costs $0.55 input / $2.20 output per million tokens (median across 5 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.151 per million tokens for Mistral Small 3.2 24B versus $0.175 for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite (1.2× as much) and $0.963 for MiniMax M1 80K (6.4× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite has not been scored yet, MiniMax M1 80K has not been scored yet and Mistral Small 3.2 24B has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite, MiniMax M1 80K and Mistral Small 3.2 24B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 1,000,000 for MiniMax M1 80K and 256,000 for Mistral Small 3.2 24B. Maximum output per response: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite up to 65,536, MiniMax M1 80K up to 80,000, Mistral Small 3.2 24B up to 16,384 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; MiniMax M1 80K accepts text; Mistral Small 3.2 24B accepts text and images. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
MiniMax M1 80K and Mistral Small 3.2 24B publishes its weights (Apache-2.0) and can be self-hosted; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Mistral Small 3.2 24B is the newest, released Jun 20, 2025. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite came out Jun 17, 2025; MiniMax M1 80K came out Jun 17, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Jan 2025, Mistral Small 3.2 24B Oct 31, 2023.
How do you decide the winner?
Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Nov 2, 2026.
